Yet another Truenamer fix

[Divide by Zero]

It seems to me that the primary issue with the Truenamer is that, especially at low levels, you have a significant chance of doing absolutely nothing for a turn, even with your first utterance of the day, unless you minmax your skill check to absurd levels. So I thought that the simplest fix would be to make your first few uses more consistent, much like a caster has a number of spell slots that will always work before they start to be useless. Here's my fix:

First use of an utterance for the day: you can take 20 on the Truespeak check (still only takes one action)
Second use: take 15
Third use: take 10

I'm also considering whether I should have these first three uses not increment the LoR. Is there anything I should tweak about this? Anything it might break that I haven't noticed? I know that a heavily optimized Truenamer can pretty much guarantee their first few uses anyway, but this should make it more playable without cheese, and at lower levels where that degree of optimization is impossible.

[Zaq]

Sigh. One of these days I'm going to put this in a .txt and just copy/paste it when this pops up.

This isn't bad, but it won't fix the Truenamer's primary problems: 1) Utterances generally suck and 2) The Law of Sequence is an enormous pain in the ass.

The DCs are silly, yes. They're a problem. I'm not going to tell you that they're not very bad class design. They are, however, by no means the Truenamer's worst problem.

[chaos_redefined]

Fixes should include both a new DC system, and a new list of utterances. Base them off the spell-list of an existing class if you have to.

[MeeposFire]

I had thought of a system of where lexicon of the mind utterances were at will if you hit a certain DC (original thought was 5+(5*level of utterance)+misc with misc being the omitting SR, meta utterance feats and the like). This was not a roll. For instance if I had 4 ranks, 16 int, and skill focus I could use any utterance where the total DC is 10 or less. No increasing DCs either. This made the truenamer into a sort of warlock as the LotM stuff was nearly at will (and at higher levels you could often quicken your utterances every round). It was interesting having at will truenaming using two utterances a round.

[Divide by Zero]

Sigh. One of these days I'm going to put this in a .txt and just copy/paste it when this pops up.

This isn't bad, but it won't fix the Truenamer's primary problems: 1) Utterances generally suck and 2) The Law of Sequence is an enormous pain in the ass.

The DCs are silly, yes. They're a problem. I'm not going to tell you that they're not very bad class design. They are, however, by no means the Truenamer's worst problem.
Good points, but I'm not looking for a rewrite so much as a small fix to make them more playable.

I had thought of a system of where lexicon of the mind utterances were at will if you hit a certain DC (original thought was 5+(5*level of utterance)+misc with misc being the omitting SR, meta utterance feats and the like). This was not a roll. For instance if I had 4 ranks, 16 int, and skill focus I could use any utterance where the total DC is 10 or less. No increasing DCs either. This made the truenamer into a sort of warlock as the LotM stuff was nearly at will (and at higher levels you could often quicken your utterances every round). It was interesting having at will truenaming using two utterances a round.

While I doubt this would make Truenamers too powerful by any means, I don't like the idea of making the DC totally irrelevant. At least as far as flavor goes, more powerful enemies should be harder to affect (especially since most of them are no-save effects).

[MeeposFire]

Well it wasn't completely irrelevant as you do need to keep investing so you can continue to improve your truenaming so you can add more stuff to your utterances (like quicken and no SR). Also the other lexicons still work as normal (and is what I used to derive part of my DC formula). I did want to think of a roll to use on the attacking non-save utterances but touch attacks did not make much sense (I am also still considering what the DC formula should be).

The flavor is what it is since that is how they designed the mechanics (I think the mechanics came before the flavor in my opinion). I based mine on the utterance of the perfect map which has DCs based on the level of the utterance rather than the target (outside of being a magical place which is the same as attacking a magical creature with SR which is +5 DC). So in mine the flavor is the more extensive the change the more difficult it is to say (higher level utterance is higher DC).

I understand though why you like the original TN fluff as it is really cool. I just decided to make it a warlock style class and made a subtle change in the fluff to make it work.

[T.G. Oskar]

I had thought of a system of where lexicon of the mind utterances were at will if you hit a certain DC (original thought was 5+(5*level of utterance)+misc with misc being the omitting SR, meta utterance feats and the like). This was not a roll. For instance if I had 4 ranks, 16 int, and skill focus I could use any utterance where the total DC is 10 or less. No increasing DCs either. This made the truenamer into a sort of warlock as the LotM stuff was nearly at will (and at higher levels you could often quicken your utterances every round). It was interesting having at will truenaming using two utterances a round.

Why not a Truespeech check against a level-like DC? Something like "Truespeech ranks + Int modifier + skill modifiers" vs. 10 + class level or 1/2 HD (the latter for monsters) + mental modifier (either Wisdom or Charisma, going for the latter)... Ideally, it would gravitate towards rolling a 10 or higher; against typical monsters whose HD increases faster than the character's levels, that might lead to early awesomeness but that effect is neutralized afterwards; against enemies with class levels, things get more standardized. Charisma would fit very well with the theme of Truenaming; your own inner strength resists the attempts of others to alter your reality. Thematically, that's the best way to see it without sacrificing mechanics; typical monsters will be affected more than once, higher-level monsters will still be affected but not that much, adding class levels makes you unique and important, and Charisma serves as a resistance to change. Perhaps provide modifiers based on alignment (but not on the good-evil axis).

Then, of course, the stuff with the duration and Law of Sequence. Fixed duration sucks, so why not make it a duration based on the truenamer's level? After all, the class already has an effective caster level for purposes of dispelling, IIRC. As for the Law of Sequence, make it so that it probably makes consecutive utterances while others are active only slightly more difficult (sorta like Law of Resistance). Of course, the idea is to make it slightly harder, not impossibly so. Thus, assuming that no utterances have been used for the day, you use one utterance at full skill bonus, then in the next round use another at a -2 penalty (from LoS, but not from LoR), then -4 (again from LoS), until the battle ends. THEN, you apply the penalty from Law of Resistance on further encounters, but the LoS penalties reset. This makes resting equally as important, but it gives the Truenamer some leverage. As well, the idea behind it is that the Truenamer gains staying power without going nova; a -10 penalty for having five utterances in the same encounter might seem a bit harsh, but you're having five longer-lasting and potentially cooler abilities than what a spell could have.

Oh, and probably turn the Truenamer's "apply utterance at multiple creatures at once" ability into a feat or a meta-utterance. Level 16 is too prohibitive, because not only you can't multiclass at all as a Truenamer, you're still depending on placing one utterance on one character at once (with two if you're lucky and have a high score).

Thing is, so as long as utterances depend on skill checks, you're rapidly approaching a state of "binary" success; either you succeed all times because your skill bonus is impossibly high, or you fail at all times because your skill bonus is arbitrarily low. Making utterances just like powers or spells would reduce its originality. I'd personally go for modular utterances (having simple utterances, and then "prefixes" and "suffixes" which make using the utterance more difficult but provide a better bonus) such as adding "fire" to "damage" to deal "fire damage", then "greater" to "fire damage" to deal "greater fire damage". Of course, while a beautiful and elegant concept, it would be far too complex for what D&D offers, and you'd either need to have some readily compounded words (which could have a reduction in the DC, if remaining with Truenaming-as-skill check, but risks having the Internet rapidly exploit it) or a few limitations. Though, seeing how the Internet exploits such a system, especially if all you need to improve it is add new "words", would be a mammoth task.

[MeeposFire]

I avoided using creature HD or CR since figuring out a different DC every time you use an utterance is very annoying. I also like the idea of making it like a warlock which is also always successful at activating its abilities. Since success is so common (and quicken so easily in reach) the limitations that already are in the system are much more tolerable.

[Divide by Zero]

I'd personally go for modular utterances (having simple utterances, and then "prefixes" and "suffixes" which make using the utterance more difficult but provide a better bonus) such as adding "fire" to "damage" to deal "fire damage", then "greater" to "fire damage" to deal "greater fire damage". Of course, while a beautiful and elegant concept, it would be far too complex for what D&D offers, and you'd either need to have some readily compounded words (which could have a reduction in the DC, if remaining with Truenaming-as-skill check, but risks having the Internet rapidly exploit it) or a few limitations. Though, seeing how the Internet exploits such a system, especially if all you need to improve it is add new "words", would be a mammoth task.

I could see this working in D&D perfectly well, actually, and it fits the class's flavor perfectly. Only problem is that would take a massive amount of work, almost on par with completely rewriting the class from scratch.

[T.G. Oskar]

I could see this working in D&D perfectly well, actually, and it fits the class's flavor perfectly. Only problem is that would take a massive amount of work, almost on par with completely rewriting the class from scratch.

Well...that's basically the idea.

Spells are easy to work with; just ban or alter the offending spells. Powers much more so. Incarnum doesn't offer that many problems, since it's complex but ultimately intuitive enough to understand. Soul binding is equally easy to understand, and mysteries almost as much.

Truenaming, on the other hand, is the only mechanic that NEEDS to be rewritten from scratch. Most of the local 'brewers have done so, but are going close to the original DC and mostly enhanced the utterances and made it a bit more streamlined with spellcasting; however, the point stands. They've rewritten Truenaming from scratch. If going for a "root word, prefix, suffix" thing, you'd be doing just a little bit extra work, but that would give you the option to flesh Truenaming closer to its intended origin.

That would also imply altering the PrCs, and also adding a link to Bards. I find bizarre why no one has ever thought to work Seeker of the Song as a Bard/Truenamer combo class (even though I went REAL close with Maestro of the World-Song), because each time I see the class I see how Truenaming would fit so closely with it.